Union Investment Adds Bitcoin As New Investment Fund

Germany is quickly becoming a hotbed of crypto investment. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Union Investment, a US$500 billion asset manager, plans to add Bitcoin (BTC) to several investment funds as part of a pilot program targeted at its institutional clients, and offers strong evidence that crypto is becoming more mainstream in Europe's largest economy.

The Frankfurt-based institution told Bloomberg on Monday, September 6 that it is considering adding BTC to a small number of investment funds that will only be available to private investors.

For each fund, Bitcoin exposure will be limited to no more than 2% of total assets. Portfolio manager Daniel Bathe said the new investment strategy is likely to start in the fourth quarter, although no fixed schedule was given.

Union Investment is the investment arm of the DZ Bank Group, an institution with more than 800 cooperative banks. As of June 30, Union Investment had 507 billion US dollars in assets under management, making it one of the largest asset managers in Germany.

Germany is quickly becoming a hotbed of crypto investment, especially among institutional players. On August 2, a new law allowing institutional funds to store crypto went into effect.

This law sets the stage for a wider uptake of digital assets, even among German pension funds. Meanwhile, German securities broker S Broker recently announced a series of crypto-focused product offerings.

At the retail level, Germans do not rank highly for crypto adoption, according to a recent survey by financial comparison website Finder. A survey of 42,000 people estimates that only 11% of Germans have exposure to digital assets. Although it is higher than the United States and the United Kingdom, it ranks far below emerging markets and other European countries.

Bitcoin reversed course again as the first launched cryptocurrency pushed its way towards 52,000 US dollars. The price has recovered about 79% from its summer "trough". In the process, Bitcoin's total market cap is once again approaching $1 trillion.